Join thousands of Oregonians opposing coal export to keep this important issue at the top of Governor Kitzhaber’s radar!

Post the image below to his personal Facebook page

Follow up with a call to his Citizen Representative hotline (503-378-4582) today! See below for Facebook posting instructions

Post this image to Kitzhaber’s Facebook page

We need Governor Kitzhaber to take a firm stand and protect Oregon from dirty coal export. Let him know that you oppose Big Coal transforming Oregon into a dirty coal chute for Asian power plants. Coal is toxic. It pollutes our air and water, harms our health, snarls our traffic, and worsens the climate crisis. Post the above image to Governor Kitzhaber’s Facebook page and give him a call (503-378-4582) to remind him about the negative impacts of coal export.

On October 22 2013, Oregon’s Department of State Lands granted Ambre Energy’s Morrow Pacific coal export project its SIXTH permit extension. Ambre’s coal export project does not meet Oregon’s environmental standards and Governor Kitzhaber should direct the Department of State Lands to deny this permit. Tell him to deny Ambre’s permit today!

Make this the most effective week of action against coal export yet! Give Governor Kitzhaber a call (503-378-4582) today and tell him you oppose coal export. Follow it up by making your voice visible to the public by posting on his Facebook page.

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Photo Credit: Daniel Dancer

Communities in and along rail lines, including The Dalles, Hood River, Portland, Salem and Eugene could see several 1.5 mile-long coal trains rolling through town every day. A terminal handling just 10 million tons of coal each would add more than 700 noisy mile-long coal trains traveling through Oregon’s rail system every year.

A single slow-moving coal train can obstruct a rail crossing by six minutes or more. Increased traffic delays at busy rail crossings would clog commuter traffic and could slow response times for emergency responders.

Added coal train traffic along Oregon’s rail line would limit access to neighborhoods, schools, business corridors and ferry terminals close to the train tracks. This could drive away investors for new residential, retail and commercial developments in waterfront communities in Oregon.

Burlington Northern Sante Fe (BNSF) railroad studies estimate at least 500 pounds of coal can be lost in the form of dust from each rail car en route. The wide ranging health dangers of coal dust include exposure to toxic heavy metals like mercury and increased rates of asthma, especially in children. Coal dust and diesel exhaust from coal trains can cause serious long-term health problems like lung and heart disease and cancer. Coal dust would pollute our clean air and water.

Toxic fish: Mercury and other pollutants from coal-burning power plants travel from Asia to the West Coast of North America where they poison our air, water, fish and food supply.

To feed both Washington and Oregon terminals, trains would be travelling through the Columbia Gorge, impacting communities and spewing dirty and dangerous coal dust throughout the windy corridor. Close to the terminals, shorelines would be given over to industrial sites with enormous piles of coal and constant dust.

The companies would ship the coal on massive cargo ships. This would mean ongoing threats to wetlands, waterways and wildlife from potential ship collisions.

Major public ports, such as the Ports of Vancouver and Portland have rejected coal export. The proposed sites have potential for hundreds of jobs in light industrial and smart-tech growth instead of being mired in a single-commodity, unpredictable dirty export trade. Increased coal train traffic could lower property values along the rail lines and would create congestion for critical business corridors.

POWER PAST COAL is an ever-growing alliance of health, environmental, clean-energy, faith and community groups and businesses working to stop coal export off the West Coast.
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